The players – Gareth Barry, Jonny Evans, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill – were questioned but not arrested by police, and look to have avoided legal action because of a lack of evidence.

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Pardew, who has also managed Reading, West Ham, Charlton, Southampton and Newcastle in an 18-year managerial career, has lost two FA Cup finals as a manager.

He was named League Managers’ Association Manager of the Year in 2012 after Newcastle finished fifth in the Premier League.

However, he has also been involved in various controversies during his career.

While West Ham boss in 2006, Pardew was involved in a confrontation with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, and in January 2014 he swore at Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini while at Newcastle.

Two months after that, he was fined £100,000 and given a formal warning for headbutting Hull City midfielder David Meyler.

‘Guardiola would be sacked with this record’

Adrian Chiles, BBC Radio 5 live presenter and West Brom fan

If you’d told me we’d be at this stage looking at our third manager of the season after just three wins I’d have said that was far-fetched.

But it had to happen. You just can’t lose as many consecutive games. If we’d had Pep Guardiola in and he’d lost that many games, we’d have had to get rid of him – that’s just the way it is.

I don’t think anyone could accuse the board of being a quick-firing operation, I just think if anything it’s too late.

I’m sure Pardew’s had enough, poor man, along with his assistant, and maybe the club have identified someone that can come in now and have a look at the squad before next season, have them over the summer and do something in the Championship.

Darren Moore is a club legend and he’ll have a lot of goodwill behind him. He can’t get any worse. I must say with Pardew I can’t celebrate him going because I found him to be a decent bloke and we looked to be improving when he took over.

Nothing seemed to go right, the gods of football were against us. I don’t know who could’ve come in and changed things around after Tony Pulis left.